April attendance, Akron arena and antagonizing alliterations… While We’re Waiting
April 24, 2014WFNY on the 2014 NFL Draft: Joe Gilbert’s Top Five Quarterbacks
April 24, 2014In a rotation where Danny Salazar and Carlos Carrasco are struggling mightily to the point of removal or demotion, the fact that Justin Masterson’s fifth start came and went with the team’s supposed ace remaining winless may be a snippet of catastrophic news. Rather, it only reinforced how worthless pitcher wins are as a metric on their own. Masterson turned in his third good start of the season against two poor ones. Add in Michael Bourn’s bat coming to life, the Indians coming through in the late innings in the clutch, and the sign-off from a better-by-the-day bullpen, and it amounted to a 5-3 win over the Royals.
The Bourn Ultimatum
It’s easiest to start at the top, so we’ll talk Michael Bourn first. As little as two days ago, I was lamenting on Twitter that Nyjer Morgan was not on the active roster to take some occasional at-bats from the scuffling Bourn. The botched bunt attempt and then weak strikeout by Bourn in the ninth inning in a tough loss last Friday night was a tipping point for many in terms of patience.
I understood from the moment Chris Antonetti signed Bourn that the Indians were likely overpaying for Bourn’s production in free agency (though, depending on what you reference, a win costs $7 million dollars in free agency and Bourn posted a 1.9 WAR last season). Still, that 1.9 WAR was 7th on a well-balanced team where four players had 3.8 WAR or greater. Long story short, because of his inefficient base-stealing and below-average batting average and OPS, I personally felt the sting of Bourn’s disappointing season much more than Nick Swisher’s or anyone else’s. Couple that with the injury to start the season this year and the rough first week for the Indians centerfielder, my patience was about gone. Then, this series happened. Bourn has now hit safely in his last four games and is 7-for-18.
Last night, Bourn started the game with a solid single to right. He followed that up by venturing too far off of second base following a Swisher walk and with Jason Kipnis at the plate attempting a bunt. First of all, why is Kipnis, the number three hitter, bunting with two on and nobody out in the first inning?1 Regardless of why Kipnis showed bunt, Bourn cannot get caught with his pants down too far off second base, which is exactly what happened.
In his next at-bat, Bourn delivered some two-out magic as he found the gap in right-center and pedaled his way to a two-run triple to tie the game as the Indians generated two response runs of their own in the second2 . Bourn would single in the seventh and get eliminated on the basepaths for the second time on the night with a caught stealing that was a bang-bang play. It’s great to see Bourn making an impact by getting on base three times in five trips to the dish, but we’ll need to continue to monitor his lack of base-stealing success and the high number of early strikeouts (12 in 33 PA or 36.7% which is well above his 20.7% career mark).
No Bull In The Back End
John Axford, Cody Allen, Bryan Shaw, and Marc Rzepczynski have formed quite the four-man unit early in this season. This shouldn’t be a surprise given three of these pitchers’ roles in the playoff stretch run last season. Axford has danced plenty to fall right in line with the legendary antacid-inducers Wickman, Borowski, and Perez, but he’s converted 8-of-9 chances, including No. 8 in this contest.
Masterson exited with one out in the seventh and with two runners on. Rzepczynski entered to face Hosmer, who has been absolutely crushing the baseball. Scrabble then proceeded to strike out the Royal slugger. Tito hopped right back out of the dugout and called on Shaw to face Billy Butler, and he did his job by forcing a deep flyout to right. Shaw then retired one batter in the eighth before Tito went to Cody to face the red-hot-only-against-the-Tribe Mike Moustakas. Allen retired Moose and Escobar to end the inning and strand the tying runner at first.
The four have combined to allow just 6 earned runs in 38 innings of work along with 17 walks and 37 strikeouts. Add in Josh Outman and Scott Atchison, who have been nearly as brilliant, and the Indians have six guys that can seemingly be trusted in high leverage situations. There are very few teams that can boast that kind of bullpen depth.
And this will continue to be the Indians’ recipe for winning. Play the opponent even through five or six and bet on the team’s bullpen and clutch hitting to lead them to victory.
Miscellaneous
- Nick Swisher saw a shift so drastic in his final at-bat that the third baseman Moustakas was just barely on the shortstop side of second base. It would be nice to see Swisher and others who see this drastic of a defensive deployment be able to handle the bat confidently enough to push one down the third base line every now and then to discourage it.
- Lonnie Chisenhall picked up his first RBI of the season with an insurance run in the bottom of the eighth on a flare that fell inside the line in shallow left field. Francona let Mike Aviles hit against right-hander Kelvin Herrera in the previous inning but opted for Chisenhall against righty Wade Davis. David Murphy also pinch-hit for Ryan Raburn and walked in the eighth. With just one left-handed bullpen arm in Danny Duffy who had thrown two innings and a lot of pitches already this series, it was safe to plug the bench lefties into the lineup. Raburn continues to struggle on the young season, as he went 0-for-3 with two weak foul-outs to first base.
- Masterson’s velocity remains a concern despite his solid outing last night (6 1/3 innings, 3 runs (2 earned), 8 hits, 2 walks, 6 strikeouts). He topped out at 90-91 mph on his sinking fastball and there were plenty at 88 or 89. His lone self-inflicted blemish came in the second with back-to-back homers allowed to Salvador Perez and Moustakas.
- The Indians had yet another error in this ballgame (their AL-leading 21st!), and it nearly cost them the game. Kipnis dropped a fielder’s choice flip from Cabrera in the sixth. Kipnis then failed to turn a possible double play on the next play as he seemed to bobble it on the transfer, essentially giving the Royals five outs. Moustakas reached the plate as a result and added his second RBI for the game on a single to right.
- Credit Mike Sarbaugh for sending Nick Swisher from first on the Jason Kipnis double in the seventh. An incredible pair of throws would’ve been required to get Swish, and while he isn’t the fastest runner, he did make it as the relay throw went up the line.
- Michael Brantley continues to do just about everything right. In the seventh, it was Brantley who reached base on a single, stole second, and scored on a pair of errors from Perez and centerfielder Jarrod Dyson, who inexplicably ran right past the errant throw in center. Activity on the basepaths (smart activity, anyway) can make things like that happen, and it manufactured a big run to pull to even.
- With the bases loaded and nobody out in the bottom of the eighth, the Indians managed just one run as Davis struck out Gomes and then retired Bourn and Swisher on strikes following Lonnie’s RBI bloop hit. Both teams stranded nine men, but the Indians were 3-for-11 with runners in scoring position compared to the Royals’ 1-for-9.
- It was the first of what I hope to be double-digit appearances for yours truly at the ballpark this season. The attendance (9,311) left a lot to be desired, but I can tell you that it got to be uncomfortably cold after the sun went down for the average person. The improvement that caught my eye first? The Indians finally entered the 21st century and replaced the 1994 tiny box televisions in the lower deck behind the plate and down the baselines with large flat-screen models.
Photo Credit: Chuck Crow/PD
- TD may not be doing this recap, but his presence when it comes to loathing bunting (at least in this scenario) remains. [↩]
- This has been a HUGE problem all season, but the Tribe had all three response runs in the game last night. It may seem like a contrived statistic, but you can’t tell me momentum doesn’t play a huge factor in baseball. [↩]
9 Comments
Great recap, Kirk! At first I was disappointed it wasn’t Jon filling in for TD, but this was a very thorough write-up.
They still haven’t replaced the tube TV’s in the suites’ outside areas. Something I noticed while sitting in the Family Social Suite this weekend.
Always nice to get a win in a close game, but the Indians sure are playing some sloppy baseball – atrocious defense, poor situational hitting (not just the failure to get hits with RISP but the failure to score runs with a runner on 3rd and less than 2 out), and inconsistent starting pitching.
If not for last year’s playoff run, I’d be inclined to think that this team was a bad team playing in a division that is so far underachieving and thus keeping the Indians within striking distance (last place, but only 1.5 games out). But because of their track record, I’m hopeful that the Indians are just underachieving.
The inconsistency of the starting pitching (most especially the struggles of Salazar and Carrasco) are definitely concerning, but we all knew heading into this season that the rotation contained a bunch of question marks. If that’s ultimately what sinks this team, it’s on the front office for not providing some veteran reinforcements to a very young and potentially unstable rotation. But the way the defense and situational hitting are going right now it’s hard to envision the Tribe being a factor this year. Those would be very frustrating reasons for this team to flame out.
Given the new metrics and the defensive shifts that follow, it is shocking that major league hitters can’t simply stick out the bat on occasion to beat these shifts. With all the bp the guys take, you would think they would practice this for 5-10 pitches each day. Our announcers last night disagrred with my view indicating that it would cause the player to get away from his strength. I don’t buy it at all.
Nice win the bullpen is by far the team MVPs. Nice to see Bourn despite that horrible base running in the first inning have a nice game. Masterson continues to show his inconsistency however maybe it’s a good thing the Indians didn’t pay him this winter. Then again it’s not like they have anyone to replace him when another team pays him.
On Wednesday morning, Bourn’s slash line was .143/.217/.143. Two days later, it is .258/.303/.323. It’s only April!
Not that I know, but I hear that players just don’t work on bunting like they use to. My eye test supports this. I think maybe it’s time to start practicing it again. I can understand hitting into the shift early in a game, but if it’s late with your team down and you need base runners – just take the free base.
On the drastic shifts, it amazes me that a MLB hitter cannot get a hard bunt down to that side of the IF. There’s no way the pitcher runs to his right, scoops the ball bare-handed, turns and completes that throw, right?
Yes, I agree. While winning is nice, it sure didn’t feel enjoyable due to the sloppiness.
I have been noticing this a lot more this year and last year. They do it with some of the best hitters too.